The Afterlife Test

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 13

Psalm 13 ESV

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Scripture Reading: Nehemiah 9:6

Nehemiah 9:6 ESV

“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.

Sermon

Good morning Church! I was Glad When they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Well today we are looking at Matthew 22 Verses 23 through 33. The Sadducees will question Jesus about the Resurrection. The really big number in our series through Matthew, but the fun way is to see that it is the second sermon in a series where Jesus is being questioned and tested in the temple as he prepares for his crucifixion and subsequent resurrection.

Context I think is extra important here, so I would like to review really quickly last week. Last week was the first “test” if you will, the Pharisees and the herodians come before Jesus and ask: Is it Legal, or Is it lawful rather, to pay taxes to caesar?” And what we noted was that Jesu did answer their question, but also he took the time to teach them a lesson. That living underneath the rule and Authority meant living under the rule and authorities of others. that there were levels to this and that ultimately though they think they can trap and trick Jesus, he knows better than them and also they ought to have listened to him. And at the end of that passage, after Jesus answers what was thought to be an impossible question but then we read in Matthew 22:22 “When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.” .

Jesus answered the Pharisees so soundly, obliterating their question, passing their test if you will, they leave and go away. But now another group will take a stand, they will stand up and they are ready to step into the ring. They come to Jesus with a different “impossible” question. They think they have the way that they can demonstrate to both Jesus and the crowd that It is actually THEM who are better, wiser more theologically aware than anyone else. What is good to note is that last week we were looking at, in many ways, how to live life on this earth, this week the attention turns to what happens after we leave this earth. What happens after our death. And Jesus will tell us.

Matthew 22:23–33 ESV

The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning, Let us open with a word of prayer.

Dear Lord we do thank you for today. thank you for your grace and mercy. thank you for your kindness towards us. We do thank you that you teach us, that you show us and give us all that we need for life and Godliness and empower us to live for you. We thank you for these things. We pray that you would be with us this morning, give us ears to hear and eyes to see. May we glory in you, in your words your work and the completed hope that we have of new life and resurrection. It is in Jesu name that we pray. AMEN

Well just like last week, this week I would like us to start by looking at THE QUESTION

The QUESTION.

And the question here, the first thing we note is WHO is bringing the question.

For some historical context, we need to wrestle with the idea differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducee. We sort of lump them together as “the opposition to Jesus. And while that is a correct lumping in some ways, these two have very different approaches. By way of example. I could come up here and lament “politicians”. and there are many things that I could do to bemoan that group. but We have to be clear that the two groups inside that one moniker of “politicians” have very different views on a whole host of things. So too with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, both opponent of Christ, but one group the republicans, one group the democrats. and the differences, especially here in the questions that they will ask are very important.

In particular we see that there were different with their aims goals and way they approached these things. Ultimately they had differences in how they saw the Law of God, how this law worked and took hold of them. The Pharisees, we often note and talk about is their idea was to add law upon law. They take the law of God that would say, for example, remember the sabbath day and keep it holy and they would add ON TOP OF THAT all sorts of other requirements. How far you could travel, and where you could go and what qualified as rest and if you left your shoe somewhere could you walk a little farther. How much you could lift, and how much your livestock could carry and they would add extra laws and pile on requirements and other things.

The Sadducees, on the other hand, actually had, at the onset, a mindset that starts out praiseworthy in that they say: lets just go back to what the Pentateuch said. What Did MOSES say in Gen, Ex, Lev, Num, and Deut. What do those books say. that will be our law, that will be what we follow. And while that is where the praiseworthy thoughts for them start, that is also unfortunately where they end. because they end up become legalistic as well, and they are unable to see, as their testing and as the testimony of Jesu we just read is, they claim to know God and scripture, but in reality they know neither. And truly when God was there in front of them they could not see him. And one of the things we see in them is that they can claim all the right knowledge and things, but in reality that is a facade that covers their own thoughts and ideas. So like the Pharisees, they just want things their way, but instead of adding laws to get what they want, they warp and bend them to mean and say what they want.

And one of the things that was sort of their signature move, their calling card if you will, was a denial of the resurrection. They did not believe that the resurrection would happen, or truly that ANY resurrection would happen. No one, they would claim will ever rise for the dead. We actually read it in our Passage, Matthew wants to make certain that we understand that in their hearts they believe that there is no resurrection form the dead Matthew 22:23 “The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question,”

When i was growing up I had a teacher that wanted us to remember this thought about the Sadducees and so he would always say: the Sadducees were sad - you - see, because they did not believe in resurrection. They didn’t believe that anyone would ever see an afterlife, this whole concept was foreign to them. Life became nothing more ever than the time after birth and before death, this life, these 100 years that is all you will ever have.

So the come to Jesus, and one more thing to note. Last week the Pharisees came with some partners in crime, namely the herodians. Well the Sadducee come with a partner in their eyes too, MOSES. Though the full story is that Moses would never be on their team, I mean, Just a few chapters ago Moses was hanging out with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, But either way, The Sadducees appeal to this authority for their question.

Didn’t MOSES TEACH US. and it they actually quote moses correctly. If a married man dies childless and he has a younger brother that younger brother must must marry the widow and their children will be raised as the older brothers children. It was so that the family name would live on, so that the older brother would have a legacy and really that his name would live on. that was the thought. It was a real law, Moses did say it. for those curious it is called the levirite law. and the goal was to protect the widow, to protect the family, the family name, though to us it sounds crazy, it had some important functions in the time of Moses.

We need to keep his name and his legacy and our family alive and active. The promises in the mosaic laws and Abrahamic covenant were for them to be fruitful and multiply and to grow into a great nation that would be a blessing to the whole world and these types of laws were important in helping that for a time. But instead of taking this law as that, something that would protect the women and the families, that it had a good and right purpose and all these things, they liked to play the philosophical games of “well lets just do a thought experiment.” Lets suppose she doesn’t just marry the first brother but also the second and the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth and just for good measure, in case you didn’t get the point she even marries the seventh brother. Their question is not what would be my first question in this situation, WHY ARE ALL HER HUSBANDS DYING? because lets be honest, that is more than a little suspicious. I wouldn't eat anything she cooked. But lets look at their question: verse 28. Matthew 22:28 “In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be?”

The goal of this question, just so you know is to show the ridiculousness, not of this question, or even this situation, or even this law, the goal was to show the ridiculousness of the resurrection. The argument goes like this: you cannot believe in the resurrection because the slippery slope of resurrection belief is this, and this situation is comically absurd. just like the idea of a resurrection is comically absurd. She is going to have seven husbands, that is not right. Well what if it is the first one, well what about all these other brothers? They get punished in the afterlife because their older brothers kept dying? If you say it is the youngest brother, again this doesn't make sense because she wasn’t his husband. So who’s wife should she be?

Obviously this whole situation is ridiculous and so obviously there is no resurrection. The goal here is in some sense to get Jesus to side with them. It is also, if we are honest a way for them to braggadociously show that they are so wise and clever. Often when I tell people that I was a philosophy major i find that people want to show how philosophical they are. In particular there is a type of person that it seems that his is a challenge or an invitation ton them to “match wits”. and the Sadducee come with this same sort of attitude. It is an attitude of “lets just show you, jesus, how wise we are, how studied we are, how incredible we are at pondering these things of God.” you sort of just get this picture of these guys sitting up in their ivory tower thinking up these scenarios. You want to know how many angels dance on the head of a pin, cuz we can tell you that sort of thing.

Ultimately it helps them feel better about themselves. And like happens many times with philosophers, where they end up with and where they find comfort is a place that no one else would ever think is comforting. Here it is: there is no resurrection. So here you go Jesus, what are you going to do about that? are you going to agree with us? or show your own ignorance? those are the two options they THINK jesus has.

But Jesus does not agree with them, and Jesus is far from ignorant. He knows these topics in a much more intimate way than they would ever know. So he gives them an ANSWER

the ANSWER.

Jesus answers them. they come with a question: who’s wife will she be? and this one of the reasons I love Jesus. Jesus answer is something along the lines of “NO”.

Well Jesus, we didn’t ask you a yes or no question, we asked: whose wife will she be. Options for your answers are “1,2,3,4,5,6,7.... " You are just wrong. Everything you believe about the resurrection. Wrong. Everything you think of in formulating this, wrong. what moses meant. you are wrong. What Moses said, even there, you are, in fact, wrong. The answer in some sense is this: your whole question is off base BECAUSE: Matthew 22:29 “because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”

So no. Whose wife will she be, that is not a valid question to ask. you are RIGHT that it is an absurd question, not because it leads to weird conclusions, but because it does not match up with the God you are claiming for it to purport, his power or even what he has said. because you don’t know his word or the things that he has done to back up that word you just get nothing.

And so the Sadducees come puffed up thinking: we have all the right answers. WE are the theologically wise ones. WE have all the correctly formed doctrines based on every jot and tiddle of all of this stuff. WE have it. and Jesus says: all the care and thought that you put into reading scriptures meant nothing for you. you spend all this time reading and studying the words of moses, yet for some reason you still don’t know The God moses wrote about. And what is words you don;t know God and you don’t know his power.

Whose wife will she be? None of them.

That’s not too hard. but why? Matthew 22:30 “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Here is a more robust answer. From “NO” to Here’s why not. And this is a loaded answer. The first thing to note, the first thing that needs to be said here. And we noted it last week in Grace Group, in fact we will note it again this week in Grace Group. When Jesus is in answering these questions, his goal and aim is not to give a full systematic theology of the topics. So this is not the beginning and end of the book on angels and the afterlife, marriage and the resurrection. For that is not his goal. his goal here is to answer this specific question of the Sadducees. This is why we started with the question: WHOSE WIFE WILL SHE BE.

And when he answers he is answering that specific question and she will not be anyone. for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage. Lets break this down. The first thought is this: In the resurrection, in the life that is to come, in what we look forward to. There will be no marriage. I will not be the Husband of Desiree. Why not? that is an important question to ask. and Jesus says here Matthew 22:30 “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”

So the second thought is we need to pause here. There is a caricature that exists in many peoples mind when we think of heaven. and that is deceased people floating on little clouds playing the harp with little wings. The idea ios that we become angels. note that is not what Jesus said here, it is that we are LIKE angels first of all. But second of all that is against what scripture teaches on this subject.

Angels and people are completely separate categories of created being. And if we are to be completly honest, to go from human to angel would be a step backwards. For scripture teaches that man was created a little higher than the angels. Angels we read NOWHERE are created in the image of God but man we know clearly ARE created in his image. so he is NOT talking about becoming an angel but being like angles in that angels do not marry.

So we can ask: what do they do? The worship in the splendor of heaven serving the Lord with gladness. So what will the resurrection be like. glorious, spectacular, the pinnacle of all things. But here we can say we will be glorying in the splendor and goodness and majesty of God as we worship and serve him for all eternity. So we will not be married. We will be growing deeper in love and awe and reverence for all eternity with the God who saved us and loved us and ransomed us and made us. That’s what Jesu means when he says that we will be like the angels. Not that we become angels, we will still be people, glorified risen bodies glorying forever. our JOB in some sense our ROLE if you will will be LIKE the angels. Simply put we will not have time to be married.

It will be eternity, you wont have time? no because all “time” outside of time will be spent in glorifying God. This is why Jesus goes here I believe. this is NOT a treatise on Marriage. Marriage is still god and right. It is a picture of Christs love for the church, this passage is no poo-pooing marriage. Marriage is one of the most, if not the most foundational relationship that many of us will ever have. But we will not be married in heaven. We will be glorying and worshipping God.

But Jesus still does not end there. he continues to push them. OK, you want to misquote Moses, and I guess more accurately rip out of context and use in isolation some law of moses. But lets look to some other bigwigs in history, see what we can say about what they thought. You keep pushing the idea that her is no resurrection, and you think you have read scripture right to hear that. BUT YOU ARE WRONG. 1) you do not understand God’s Scriptures. (2) you do not understand God’s power (3) you do not understand what we will be doing in heaven. and (4) you don’t even understand what GOD HIMSELF said when he said Matthew 22:32 “‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.””

There is a lot going on here. The biggest thought is this, and I usually try and avoid grammar lessons, but I think you all can wrap your minds around this one. Grammatically we could see what is being said when he says he IS the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Currently. and still. and always and forever. not he WAS the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. If they are going to be consistent with how they are reading Scripture than they should argue that truly he WAS the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, but they are now dead. so now he IS the God of you and us, but we will die too then he WILL BE the God of our kids and our kids kids. so that is the grammar thought, but there is more than that going on here.

For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living. He does not rule over the kingdom of the dead. We don’t float down the river Nyx to try and find God in the realm of the dead, he is the God of the living, and we trust in Him - the living God. You Sadducee are all caught up because you do not seem to know or understand what God has said, you just cannot wrap your mind around all of this, but here is the truth that scripture teaches: God has placed eternity in the hearts of man.

Our hearts our souls are designed to long for eternity, we long for these things. and the resurrection is the hope that all that longing is not in vain. and so the Sadducees are truly sad -you see, because they do not understand the nature of this hope. They do not have the hope in serving the living God. they are so caught up in these thoughts and formulating all these right concerns and things that they cannot see what is right in front of them. They do not know or understand the scriptures that they are reading. And they do not know God. They cannot heat his words. they have so plugged their minds that even as the words of God are open before them they WILL NOT, not they cannot, but they WILL NOT understand. You are reading what YOU want in scripture and not what God has said. SO you go to some passage in Deuteronomy 25 trying to find the exact argument for resurrection missing the heart of who God is., That law was never talking about resurrection, so why go there?

You don’t know the Lord. you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. Do you NOT read your scriptures, he is not the god of the dead but the god of the living.

And it is there that Jesus, as he did with the pharisees before, if you will excuse the phrase, it is there that he drops the mic. that's the answer. You thought you had me trapped, you don’t even know what you are talking about.

Matthew 22:33 ESV

And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

Note that the Sadducee were not astonished. More likely they were upset, livid. but everyone all around looks around and thinks: who is this jesus and can answer this way. they are astonished. But let me just answer THAT question. Who is this Jesus who can answer in this way? He is the living God. HE is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and he is the one who will later in the week that he is speaking the words here will be brutally murdered, hung on a cross dead and buried. But then will rise victoriously in the power of the resurrection on the third day.

that is the point, that is our hope. To deny the resurrection, and Paul will talk about this and this is what we will talk about on Thursday and Grace Group. but here is the short short version of this: to deny the resurrection is to deny the resurrection even of Jesus Christ. and to do that robs us of ALL of our hope and ALL our peace and ALL of our Joy and ALL of our assurance. The resurrection is THE MOST fundamental foundational truth of both history and scripture. the most fundamental part of all this life is the resurrection of Jesus Chrsit. It is what shows us the power of God. It is what we read about and what is pointed to in Scriptures It is how we can say we serve the living God, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Lets PRAY